Preparing for winter II

Jolaaled

Sunnyday wrote: »

The kitchen curtain rail is up :j i`ve done it with the new strips so

SD

Hi..I'm interested in the new nail strips....do you know what they're officially called, cos when I google this, I just seem to get Fingernail art stuff!!

THANKS!

Rainy-Days

kmiller4 wrote: »

Is washing powder for laundry? Here we call it laundry detergent. I make my own with 1 bar grated laundry soap, 1 cup of washing soda and 1 cup of powdered borax. You can mix it well and use it dry or mix with water in a 5 gallon bucket. It's dirt cheap and cleans the clothes really well. No dyes or perfumes. I still add chlorine bleach to my white clothes and fabric softener (conditioner) as needed.

Kathy we have allot more than powder here, we have gels, liquids, tablets and liquid pouches to name them. Then we have the conditioners which come in an array of gorgeous scents. We have scented ironing water, colour catcher sheets. We have allot of laundry stuff here biggest one which you will know is Proctor & Gamble who make Ariel, Daz, Bold and Fairy with Lenor as their conditioner. Unilever is Persil and Surf. I know you still have the Tide powder though!

Rainy-Days

Someone (not naming names ) very kindly sent me a PM asking why I clean my oven right now as it's an indoors job that can be done anytime. Well, yes I take the point but the thing is I don't use conventional cleaning products to clean my oven. Years ago I bought a big tray from Lakeland Limited in which I soak my racks in. I use three mugs full of biological powder two kettles full of boiling hot water and then fill the rest up from the tap using the 70 degree water which I find is a good combination to eat the crusted deposits off the racks. It only needs a bit of a scrub with the wire pads and it comes off easily. This of course causes steam in the kitchen and I also have one of those 'self cleaning ovens' which also uses steam and elbow grease as well. So if I do all of this in winter I will add considerably to the condensation and to be honest when it was flipping cold last year it was a pest to keep it down I was walking around the house with an old hand towel mopping up the water.

So that is why I have done the oven now, I keep on top of it every week anyway making sure it is clean. I just like an indepth clean.

Confuzzled

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Whilst there, I stumbled across one of my issues with them - wanted a biggish jar of coffee.... went to pick up the 300g jar and then looked at the prices of all of them ...

100g jar = £1.49/100g
200g jar = £1.30/100g (ok so far).....
300g jar = £1.59/100g ....grrrr:mad:

Not just the coffee either ... pasta was the same, and also got some extra table salt (just in case) - a 750g tub was 20p but a 1.5kg bag was 89p ... another big difference.:(

How many people don't look and end up paying more by buying the bigger jars/packs of things, it's really underhand IMHO (and I can appreciate how easily it'd be done if you're in a hurry, have kids with you etc).

i've noticed this more and more with tesco and asda. i beat them at their own game though as i always look at price per kilo/litre etc so i'm always looking for the bottom line but they've obviously decided to take advantage of those that thing bulk always means cheaper.

my biggest bugbear with that is that by doing it that way they force me to buy more packaging so i can get a lower price and that weighs on my conscience just like paying more weighs down my wallet

ifonlyitwaseasier

stay safe Kathy, and i have a question for you, home made biscuits..... do you have a recipe for them? at the moment i have to confess using a packet mix from a store that sells lots of american products, as we are hooked on biscuits and gravy!!! (american biscuits are like fluffier scones for those who haven't had them, and the gravy is a white sauce type gravy seasoned well with chunks of cooked down sausage in it) i will admit i add old bay seasoning to my gravy but wow its good!!

Confuzzled

Mad4camping wrote: »

me again.. I also bought as a small gamble some cooking bacon....

It was a £1.50 for a kilo from l**dl.

I had a root through and picked 2 packs with less obvious fat... I have just finished cutting it up and preparing it to open freeze. So I can bag it later and it wont be in a mass clump..there is rather a lot. I was really pleased hardly any fat other than what I saw initially. contemplating going to get some more....

I now have plenty of nice bacon for my pea and ham soups and for pasta sauces etc over the next few months

Thought I would share x

i regularly buy this, well when it's in stock, sometimes you can go weeks and there isn't any then they have it for a few weeks so i usually buy two at a time.

you do the same as me, looking for the least obvious fat. the oddly coloured ones are the ones with smoked bacon in them (sniff the package you'll see what i mean) so i try to find those too, you don't always get smoked but if you root around enough you often can.

i don't buy any other kind of bacon anymore, i only like thick rashers so the stuff from lidl is perfect and it also does for nice cooking bacon too. i bring mine home, cut it into 4 sections and put one in the fridge and bag up the other 3 for the freezer for later use as it's only the 2 of us here. i can't recommend this stuff enough, really nice bacon and lovely in soups in casseroles as well as a bacon butty :T

KazLA

What an interesting thread! Found by accident and initially thought, we're in the south, can walk to the shops, not really relevant to me etc etc, but its become quite addictive reading! ....and I'm in the process of making a door curtain! Our hallway has always been freezing, despite the DG door, and made me realise I can do something about it!

Been trying to catch up b4 posting, but its so fast moving, so apologies if this has already been mentioned, selected colours of single curtains with the round holes in the top for a pole were down to £4.62, initially thought they were v thin, but combined with a twin pack of fleeces, down to £3.50 (again only certain colours), think it will be fab!

Thanks for all the useful info!

Mmmmm.... think a £land thing behind the radiator is next, and perhaps a few extra tins and jars next time I go shopping!

veggieblob

For those who don't have all their fleeces etc, Lands End have a sale online at the moment and I've also posted a couple of codes here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/46445225#Comment_46445225

I got myself a fleece jacket and a beenie hat (which will make me look totally rediculous as I don't do hats, but it'll keep me warm)

Big hugs to those who need them xxx

KazLA

KazLA wrote: »

selected colours of single curtains with the round holes in the top for a pole were down to £4.62, initially thought they were v thin, but combined with a twin pack of fleeces, down to £3.50 (again only certain colours)

Should hv said that was Wilkinson. Got a lovely deep purple one & co-ordinating fleeces, terracotta also reduced.

Sunnyday

CH27 wrote: »

If I lived in Yorkshire you could have half:D

Aw ta! I Wish that you did :A
It would also be nice to have someone local to chat to as everyone else thinks that i`m crackers what with all the winter prep etc

Jolaaled wrote: »

Hi..I'm interested in the new nail strips....do you know what they're officially called, cos when I google this, I just seem to get Fingernail art stuff!!

THANKS!

They are no more nails strips by unibond, i`ve never seen them before only the no more nails stuff in a tube. They are in a small flat packet and i happened on them by accident in the supermarket, they were about £2.50 for a small pack so i thought it was well worth trying them instead of drilling more holes everywhere. I`ll post back when the curtains are up and see if they hold.

In theory they should be ok as the plastic track is light weight and so are the curtains - the fleeces will make it heavier but the track is only just over 4ft and i`ve used 4 strips to fasten the bracket type thingys to the wall. Worst case scenario ( i hope) is that they will fetch the paint off the plaster but heres hoping that they will be fine *crosses fingers*

I`ve just seen the biggest spider in the world run past the sofa :eek: I normally don`t like to kill anything but i`m afraid the hoover had to come out for that one, good job it has a detatchable part to get things that are hard to get to. Thats all i need now, all the spiders making a beeline for indoors as its getting colder outside :eek:

SD